


Forty Nine Days of Mourning

by handyhunter



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-17
Updated: 2010-02-17
Packaged: 2017-10-07 08:20:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handyhunter/pseuds/handyhunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after Serenity, the movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forty Nine Days of Mourning

Forty nine days after Wash's death, Zoe slips on the same white dress she wore to his funeral and makes her way silently to the bridge. The ship is quiet; everyone is bunked down for the night except River who has taken the night shift again. She doesn't look at all surprised to see Zoe and doesn't say anything either when Zoe begins to lay out the materials for this ritual. There's not much and she isn't quite sure how traditional it is, doing this on a ship rather than at his grave, but she thinks Wash won't mind. She sets down a plate of bao next to his few remaining plastic dinosaurs. Zoe is not usually sentimental or superstitious, preferring to keep her sorrows private, but Wash was her husband, so she figures she's allowed.

"Serenity misses him," says River, jolting Zoe out of her thoughts. She sits down on the floor next to Zoe and has half a dozen sheets of the fake red-and-gold paper money folded into neat triangles before Zoe manages to get her one done.

Zoe closes her eyes for an extra long blink. "We're still flying." She's learning not to expect Wash's voice to come crackling over the coms or to see him in the pilot's chair when she passes by the bridge. Zoe hands over the pad of paper money to River, who folds them as Zoe lights the folded bills on fire. The little metal bin in front of her slowly fills up with ashes. It's strangely cathartic.

When all the money is turned to ash, Zoe carefully picks up bin with the heat resistant gloves she borrowed from Kaylee. There's no trace of her ceremony, aside from the faint smell of smoke and the plate that River has commandeered.

River holds up the bao and asks, "Can I eat this?"

That startles a quiet laugh from Zoe. "Sure," she says. "Shouldn't let good food go to waste." Zoe thinks she should go down to her bunk and get some rest before daybreak and a new job, but for now she's content to sit in the co-pilot's chair and watch the endless sky go by.


End file.
